This article has been updated.
Lee Manor Society is lodging a formal objection to London Square’s planning application which would pave the way for a Leegate tower even higher than the 15 storeys already approved.
The Society has set out a series of reasons why Lewisham Council should reject the application. The full objection can be seen here.
Crucially, the Society argues the application to remove the 15-storey description of the tower, is not ‘non-material’. This is a technical, but vitally important aspect of the planning application.
The Society says that by removing the description it would lead to changes to the height of the proposed tower block, which would indeed be material because “it has the potential to adversely affect the amenity of neighbouring properties, including increased traffic due to an increase in residential units and of overshadowing.”
The objection points out that in their application, London Square’s agents say they have been ‘encouraged’ to test the height of the tower, known as Ai in the planning application.
Their Public Consultation document states: ‘“Following meetings with Lewisham Council and the Design Review Panel, the team have been encouraged to test additional height at building A1. The current proposals would increase the height of A1 from 15 to 18 storeys‘”
That suggests Lewisham Council is at least partly complicit in the approach, despite the fact that its own ‘Local Plan’ (although not yet formally adopted) sets a normal upper limit for tall buildings of 12 storeys.
The Society also notes that London Square says it needs to raise the height of the tower above 15 storeys ‘to ensure the scheme remains deliverable.’
“So, the only objective reason provided by London Square appears to be that the current approved scheme is not viable,” says the objection.
It continues “It would be an incredibly incompetent developer who would spend serious amounts of money on purchasing a site with an extant Planning Approval that they knew full well to be unviable in meeting their own requirements.
“From this we can only surmise that London Square are simply ‘testing’ the limits of the current approved Application ref DC/22/126997 to garner more profit because they would not have purchased the rights to a development that was incapable of being achieved.”
The Society reminds Lewisham Council that when Galliard first proposed a 15- storey tower block there were numerous local objections. It argues that Lewisham Council should not denigrate the concern of a material change of height to being a non-material change by the removal of the words up to ‘15-storeys (including basement level) …’ from the Decision Notice because without those words there is no detailed description of the development proposals.
“What is clear to any reasonable person is that the height of the main tower Block A of the proposed Leegate development was a very material concern raised by numerous objections… the height of the Block A tower building was a matter of great concern to local residents throughout the previous (Galliard) planning application and is of no lesser concern now.
“To consider removing the text that relates in general to its overall height would simply be wrong and a dereliction of LBL’s responsibilities to its borough’s residents as this is clearly a material consideration of the proposed development.”